A Book of Burlesque: Sketches of English Stage Travestie and Parody

by William Davenport Adams

  II.

  THE "PALMY" DAYS.

  After the production of "Amoroso," Planche remained silent, so faras travestie was concerned, till 1831, when he began in earnest hissuccessful career as a burlesque writer. In the interval a new votaryof travestie appeared in the person of Fox Cooper, of whose "ElbowShakers" and "Ion" I shall have something to say by-and-by. Moncrieffand Buckstone, too, followed the example of T. Dibdin, in dealing moreor less humorously with the subject of "Don Giovanni," while Buckstonealso essayed to do the same with that of "Billy Taylor." None of theseeffusions, however, were burlesques in the ordinary acceptation of theword; and 1831, therefore, may still be taken as the starting-point ofthe new theatrical era, of which Planche was the herald.

  This era may be said to divide naturally into fairly balanced parts,the first extending from 1831 to 1865, the period covered by Planche'sactivity in the work; the second from 1865 to 1885, by which timeMr. Edward Terry and Miss Kate Vaughan had retired from the Gaiety.Within the former moiety are comprised the labours of four men who formany years shared with Planche the throne of stage travestie. NeedI say that I mean Gilbert Abbott a'Beckett (with whom Mark Lemon sofrequently collaborated), Francis Talfourd, and the Brothers Brough?Planche's "Olympic Revels" (1831) was followed by A'Beckett's "Son ofthe Sun" in 1834, by Talfourd's "Macbeth" in 1847, and by the BrothersBrough's "Enchanted Isle" in 1848. The "Joan of Arc" of William Broughwas seen in 1869; its writer had been producing burlesque for overtwenty years. Talfourd's career as a dramatist was comparatively brief.Beginning in 1847, it ended in 1860, but was brilliant while it lasted.

  Modern burlesque was fortunate indeed in its founders--all of them menof education and refinement, all of them men of letters as well asplaywrights. To the literary merit of their products it is unnecessaryto bear more than the briefest testimony, for it is everywhere, and byeverybody, acknowledged. In the writings of these four men theatricalburlesque was seen at its best. They came fresh to the task, andmade the most of their opportunities. They set themselves really totravestie and to parody, and were careful to present, amid theirwildest comicalities, a definite, intelligible story. They droppednaturally into the decasyllabic couplet, and made free use of the pun;but in neither case did they become mechanical or strained. The verseof Planche and A'Beckett is smoothness itself, and they do not descendto word-torturing. Talfourd and the Broughs took more licence in thislatter respect, but they never sank into drivel. Above all, not oneof these five masters of burlesque permitted themselves to be vulgareither in general treatment or in verbal detail. They were nice intheir choice of subjects, and, like Mr. W. S. Gilbert in the case of"The Princess," perverted them respectfully. One finds no horseplayin the fun of these genuine humourists. All their effects are madelegitimately, and in decent fashion.

  They were happy, too, in the good influence they exercised. The list oftheir colleagues during the period named is notable. One meets earlywith the names of Charles Selby and W. H. Oxberry. Then come thoseof Albert Smith, Kenny, and Shirley Brooks, Leicester Buckingham,and Andrew Halliday, by whom much excellent work was achieved in the'forties and 'fifties. Of lesser note, in this particular department ofendeavour, were Leman Rede, Stirling Coyne, and Tom Taylor, who weremore distinguished in other fields. Selby and Oxberry had the knack ofwriting for the stage which so often results from experience in acting.Smith, Brooks, Buckingham, Halliday, Rede, Coyne, and Taylor, weremen whose literary skill, acquired in other quarters, was of eminentservice to the comic stage. Especially is it to be regretted that thegenial and witty author of "Sooner or Later" did not devote more ofhis time and talent to the service of burlesque, of the qualities andpossibilities of which he had so keen a sense.

  But to turn now to the second moiety of the period above named--thatextending from 1865 to 1885. We find that this, too, has had the goodfortune to be dominated by some burlesque writers of very specialcapacity--to wit, Mr. F. C. Burnand, the late H. J. Byron, Mr. W.S. Gilbert, and Mr. Robert Reece. Mr. Burnand has been bringing outburlesques ever since 1855, when he wrote "Villikins and his Dinah"for the Cambridge A.D.C. His first London production was his "Dido,"seen at the St. James's in 1860. His metropolitan career, therefore,has covered more than thirty years. Byron began at the Strand in 1858,and ended at the Gaiety in 1879. Mr. Gilbert's labours as a producerof travestie in the ordinary sense started early in the 'sixties with"Dr. Dulcamara," and closed in 1870 with "The Princess."[4] Mr. Reeceopened in 1865 with "Prometheus"; and work in which he had a part waswitnessed so recently as 1886.

  [4] In the preparation of "The Happy Land" (1873) Mr. Gilbert had only a share, the scenario being his, but nearly all the writing being done by Mr. Gilbert Arthur a'Beckett.

  Mr. Gilbert soon found that his true _metier_ lay outside the boundsof ordinary burlesque, and his "Princess" was the stepping-stone to"The Palace of Truth," and, in due course, to "H.M.S. _Pinafore_"and its successors. His travesties of "L'Elisir d'Amore," "La Filledu Regiment," "The Bohemian Girl," "Norma," and "Robert le Diable,"had, however, what all the best specimens of English stage burlesquehave had--a literary quality and an entire absence of coarseness orsuggestiveness; and no doubt they had, at the time, their due effectupon the public taste. Meanwhile, the premier burlesque writers ofthe past thirty years are Mr. Burnand, Byron, and Mr. Reece, whoseproductions have been as notable for their multiplicity and variety asfor their technical excellence. All three, like the ablest of theirpredecessors, have written extravaganza as well as travestie; and, intravestie, they have gone far afield, essaying and succeeding in allsubjects and all styles. They, too, have favoured, in the main, thedecasyllabic couplet and the pun, bringing both of them to all thecomic perfection of which they were capable. The pun, in particular,has reached its highest phase in the writings of these consummatejugglers with words.

  Mr. H. B. Farnie had a considerable vogue in burlesque from 1870 to1885, but never displayed the neatness or the spontaneity of thewriters above mentioned. He was fluent, but that was all. Mr. AlfredThompson at one time did good things in this direction, and so didMr. Conway Edwardes. Mr. G. A. Sala composed one burlesque, but hasnot been induced to give it a successor. Mr. Herman Merivale hasbeen content to write two: that he has not written more is to beregretted. Among other recent writers of travestie may be named--Mr.Gilbert Arthur a'Beckett, Mr. Harry Paulton, Mr. F. W. Green, Mr.Arthur Matthison, Mr. Savile Clarke, Mr. W. Younge, Mr. Edward Rose,Mr. Alfred Murray, Mr. Albert Chevalier, Mr. George Dance, Mr. G. P.Hawtrey, Mr. Horace Lennard, Mr. Geoffrey Thorn, and Mr. Cecil Raleigh.In the provinces great successes have been made by Mr. J. McArdle andMr. Wilton Jones. Of Messrs. Sims and Pettitt, Stephens and Yardley,"Richard Henry," and "A. C. Torr" and H. Mills, I shall have somethingto say when I come to consider "The New Burlesque," of which theyhave been the principal producers. If, within the last twenty yearsor so, travestie has been confined to a smaller number of theatresthan before, and if it has been proportionately "depressed," that hasbeen owing, chiefly, to the popularity of comic opera and farcicalcomedy, into the composition and exposition of which has been thrown,of necessity, very much of the talent which otherwise would have beendevoted to the writing and acting of burlesque.

  On the whole, the days between 1831 and 1885 were, for burlesque,"palmy" days indeed. They produced not only many admirable writers ofthe _genre_, but many admirable actors thereof. Planche was generousin his praise of the artists who helped so greatly to make his pieces"go"; and he did well to be so, for never, I suppose, was a comicwriter so fortunate in his interpreters. During his first years at theOlympic he had the aid of the incomparable Vestris, of Rebecca Isaacs,of Miss Murray, of Mrs. Macnamara, of Mrs. Honey, of John Brougham,of James Bland, of James Vining, and of Charles James Mathews,--allin the first rank of their art. At Covent Garden, from 1840 to 1843,the company included, at different times, not only Mme. Vestris, Mrs.Macnamara, Brougham, Bland, and Vining, but Harley, Wm. Harrison,Morris Barnett, Selby, Miss Fairbrother, Miss Priscilla Horton, Mrs. C.Jones,
and Mrs. Alfred Wigan. At the Haymarket, during the three yearsfollowing, Planche had his ideas carried out, not only by Bland andMiss Horton, and during one year by Mme. Vestris and Charles Mathews,but also by Caulfield, Widdicomb, Tilbury, Brindal, Braid, JuliaBennett, Miss Reynolds, and Mrs. L. S. Buckingham. Continuously luckyin this respect, Planche enjoyed--from 1847 to 1853, at the Lyceum--theservices of Miss Fitzwilliam, Julia St. George, Miss Oliver, JohnReeve, Robert Roxby, Basil Baker, and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Matthews, inaddition to Vestris and Mathews and many others of the artists namedabove. Finally, and best, when Planche brought out, at the Olympic, his"Yellow Dwarf," his "Discreet Princess," and his "Young and Handsome,"his chief comedian was the "great little Robson," the fame of whosetragi-comic outbursts still lingers among us, and who had for hissuccessive supporters Horace Wigan, Emery, James Rogers, Julia St.George, Miss Maskell (Mrs. Walter Baynham), and Miss Swanborough.

  What, meanwhile, had been the _personnel_ at the other houses ofburlesque? At the Strand in the 'thirties, the great favourites wereW. J. Hammond, H. Hall, Mitchell, Oxberry, G. Cooke, Miss Daly, MissHorton. At the Fitzroy one finds Miss Chaplin and W. Rogers; at theVictoria, Rogers and Mitchell; at the St. James's, Hall and Mme.Sala; at Sadler's Wells, Rogers and C. H. Pitt; at the Queen's, T. F.Matthews and Mrs. Selby; and at the Adelphi, O Smith, John Reeve, andMrs. Stirling. Early in the 'forties we see Wright and Paul Bedfordmoving from the Princess's to the Adelphi, where Miss Chaplin and MissWoolgar are also located. At the Strand we find Wigan, Hammond, andR. Romer. Later, we come across Keeley in burlesque at the Haymarket,along with Bland, Miss Reynolds, and Miss Horton. The second half ofthe century opens brilliantly at the Strand, where Reeve, Rogers,Romer, and Maskell are the male comedians, with Miss Marshall, MissRomer, Miss Maskell, and Mrs. Horsman as their helpmates. Was not thata truly strong company? And was not the Adelphi fortunate, about thesame time, in the possession of Miss Woolgar, Miss Mary Keeley, Keeleyhimself, and Paul Bedford? At the Haymarket were Buckstone and Mrs.Caulfield. Some of these may be names only to the uninstructed reader;but to the theatrical student they all convey a world of meaning,conjuring up a multitude of delightful associations.

  When we come to 1856 we reach a landmark in the history of burlesqueacting. William Brough's "Perdita" is "put up" by Charles Dillon atthe Lyceum, and in the cast of it we find not only Miss Woolgar and theauthor, but that very youthful actress Marie Wilton, and that risingyoung comedian J. L. Toole. Here, then, is the beginning of the modern_regime_. Robson and Julia St. George are still playing at the Olympic;but the "palmy" days of the Strand Theatre are about to flash upon us.Marie Wilton stays for another year at the Lyceum, but in 1858 she iscomfortably lodged at the little playhouse across the way, togetherwith Bland and Poynter and Mrs. Selby, and Johnny Clarke, H. J. Turner,and Miss Ternan. In 1859 Charlotte Saunders is playing a mock Romeo toMarie Wilton's mock Juliet, and Eleanor Bufton and Maria Simpson and"Jimmy" Rogers are also members of the troupe--the one troupe whichcan regard itself as the legitimate successor to the Vestris-Mathews"combinations." In the year following, a new star arises at the Lyceumin the person of Lydia Thompson; at the St. James's are Nelly Mooreand Cecilia Ranoe and Charles Young; at the Haymarket are Chippendale,Compton, and C. Coghlan. A few months more, and the name of Kate Terryappears on the burlesque bill at the St. James's. Fanny Josephs andE. Danvers have been added to the Strand establishment, which shortlywelcomes Fanny Hughes and Ada Swanborough, Polly Marshall and GeorgeHoney.

  Next comes the turn of the little Royalty. We are in 1863, and Mr.Burnand's "Ixion" is announced, with Jenny Wilmore in the title-part,David James as Mercury, Felix Rogers as Minerva, Mrs. Charles Selby asthe Queen, and Ada Cavendish as Venus. Here, again, is a landmark, notto be left unnoted; here we have to record the first of many triumphsto come. Next year both David James and Thomas Thorne are in the troupeat the Strand, where they are destined to remain till they open theVaudeville in 1870. In the year next again, the burlesque company atthe Olympic is seen to include a young actress of the name of EllenFarren, one day to become the chief tender of the "sacred lamp"; alongwith her are Amy Sheridan, Louisa Moore, Patti Josephs, and Mrs.Stephens. Meanwhile, the Royalty has been running neck and neck withthe Strand, and growing greatly in public favour. By 1866 it is ripefor another success--the most remarkable ever achieved on the burlesqueboards--secured by the "Black-eyed Susan" of Mr. Burnand, with FredDewar as Captain Crosstree, Mr. Charles Wyndham as a Deal smuggler,Miss Oliver as Susan, Miss Nellie Bromley as Dolly Mayflower, and E.Danvers as Dame Hatley. After this one notes the addition to the Strandtroupe, first, of Miss Eliza Johnstone, Miss Elise Holt, and MissWeathersby; and next, of Miss Lydia Thompson. At the New Queen's in1868, Miss Kate Santley and Miss Henrietta Hodson are playing burlesquewith W. H. Stephens and "Lal" Brough. In the same year the GaietyTheatre is opened, by Mr. John Hollingshead with a new burlesque by Mr.W. S. Gilbert--"Robert the Devil," in which the leading character isundertaken by Miss Ellen Farren.

  From this date onwards it is not necessary to do more than indicate afew salient points in connection with burlesque acting in this country.The opening of the Gaiety was the first step towards the expansion ofthe Old burlesque into the New. In the following year Mr. Edward Terryentered on an engagement at the Strand--an engagement which lastedtill 1877, and did as much for the progress of stage travestie as didthat of Miss Farren at the other house. In 1869 there was burlesqueat the Globe, with Edward Marshall and Miss Maggie Brennan, and atthe St. James's with Mrs. John Wood in "La Belle Sauvage."[5] In 1870Harry Paulton went to the Strand; and at the Royalty were RachelSanger, Arthur Wood, and Alfred Bishop. In 1871 there was burlesque atthe Court, with Mlle. D'Anka, Miss Oliver, Miss Kate Bishop and Mr.Righton. At the Vaudeville, next year, Miss Nelly Power and Miss MarieRhodes were supporting Messrs. James and Thorne; while at the Royaltywere Miss Emma Chambers, Miss Kate Phillips, and Miss Harriett Coveney.

  [5] An adaptation of John Brougham's American burlesque, "Pocohontas." Into this was introduced a travestie of the Bancroft's garden scene in "School." Mr. Lionel Brough played Captain John Smith.

  In 1873 Mr. E. W. Royce goes to the Gaiety, and Miss Lottie Venneis seen at the Court in "The Happy Land." At the Folly, next year,Mr. Edouin takes the fancy of the town as the Heathen Chinee in Mr.Farnie's "Blue Beard;" Belmore, Mr. Odell, and Mr. Leonard Boyne allessay to burlesque Mr. Irving as Hamlet; and Miss Pattie Laverne playsthe hero in Mr. Burnand's "Ixion Re-Wheeled." A "Robinson Crusoe," byMr. Farnie, at the Folly in 1876, brings to the front a droll WillAtkins in the form of Mr. George Barrett.

  In 1877, at the Gaiety, Edward Terry joins Miss Farren and Mr. Royce,and in 1878 Selina Dolaro and G. W. Anson are playing at the Folly in"Another Drink," while Alma Stanley and Charles Groves are playing in"Venus" at the Royalty. Miss Kate Vaughan, at the Gaiety, is alreadybeginning to revolutionise stage dancing, making it at once gracefuland decorous. At the Royalty, in 1880, are Miss Kate Lawler and Mr.Frank Wyatt; at the Gaiety are Mr. Dallas and Miss Gilchrist. In 1882,Mr. Toole, who has not been seen in burlesque for some time, takes partin a skit on rural melodrama. A year later Mr. Harry Monkhouse figuresat the Gaiety; Mr. E. D. Ward and Miss Marie Linden first show, atToole's, their talent for travestie; and Miss Laura Linden does thesame thing at the Strand. In 1884 Mr. Willie Edouin and Miss AliceAtherton make, in "The Babes," their first joint success in London; andMr. Edward Terry and Miss Kate Vaughan appear at the Gaiety for thelast time in burlesque.

  It is from this point that we may date the foundation of the NewBurlesque, to which I shall return in my last chapter. In the chaptersthat immediately follow we shall be able to see how numerous were thetopics essayed by burlesque writers in the "palmy" days, and also withhow much wit and humour those writers were able, for the most part, tocharge the stories that they told and the pictures that they presented.